Outpatient care

Many of our patients access our care through the hospice’s medical outpatient clinics, which run twice each week.

To attend our outpatient clinics, people must be referred by a
GP, hospital consultant, specialist nurse or district nurse, or
already be accessing other hospice services - we don't accept
self-referrals and aren't able to accept 'drop-in' patients.

The time to help understand your needs

We try to provide those visiting our outpatient clinic with as
much time as we can; for new patients, this means a one-hour time
slot. This gives us plenty of time to make the patient comfortable,
talk to him or her in depth and undertake a thorough assessment of
needs. We take this time because we want to look at each person's
'whole' needs, not just medical, but also emotional, social and
spiritual. This meeting is typically with a consultant. For
subsequent visits, we provide a 30-minute session - still plenty of
time for a relaxed, in-depth assessment of progress.

Specialist clinics

For those people with degenerative neurological disorders such
as progressive supranuclear palsy or motor neurone disease, we
provide a specialist clinic once a month. This is usually
undertaken jointly with the palliative medicine counsellor and
neurosciences community matron, who have highly specialised skills
in the care of these patients. Where possible, we try to see people
early in the illness, so that we can discuss and plan for their
future care needs.

Duration of care

Where a patient doesn't require ongoing review, perhaps because
their symptoms are stable, we may discharge him or her back into
the care of their GP. However, we're always ready to see people
again when the need arises - by referral from their GP, hospital
consultant, specialist nurse or district nurse.